China and Smoking
“It is quite true that Americans value democracy It is quite false that they value liberty. Whole sects and societies [of Americans] would treat tobacco not merely as a poison but as a sort of infernal drug invented by demons. All the American virtues and vices mingle in this national instinct for persecution. It has the democratic spirit, in the spontaneous movement of the masses. It has the optimistic spirit, in the facile faith in the result of a new law or regulation. But to say that it has the spirit of individual liberty is claptrap.” GK Chesterton, 1923.
“The man who is silly enough to say, when offered a cigarette, ‘I have no vices,’ may not always deserve the rapier-thrust of the reply given by the Italian Cardinal, ‘It is not a vice, or doubtless you would have it.’” GK Chesterton, 1923
I know many who’ve lived in China probably come home and blame some strange new quirk or tick on China. I can see that expat now– suddenly having this urge to always squat when he goes to the bathroom—his roommate wondering why there are now footprints on the toilet seat. Or maybe his table etiquette is suddenly lacking—he sticks the bowl directly under his nose and scrapes the food in his mouth, pausing from time to time to spit the bones on the floor.
So, as I say this, I say it with a certain amount of guilt. Ultimately, I’m responsible for my own decisions and my own actions. I gladly own up to this. But what I am about to say is the truth. China enabled my smoking addiction. There. After typing it, I like the way it looks on paper. China did not cause me to keep smoking cigarettes. But China is the reason I started. It’s true, and these are the facts.
